For more than 70 years, the United Nations has linked the many countries of the world together through its extensive patchwork of conventions, treaties, agencies and decision-making structures.
But politics and pessimism increasingly threaten to undermine the global body鈥檚 ability to act in the face of pressing crises and concerns, said Canadian humanitarian Stephen Lewis in the Shaar Shalom lecture at AV俱乐部 earlier this month.
The United States has actively disengaged from the organization, failing to even send a new ambassador after the last one鈥檚 term ended, he noted. And nationalists around the world consistently question the organization鈥檚 very political legitimacy. Meanwhile, humanitarians have grown particularly frustrated with the paralysis of the UN鈥檚 political wing.
鈥淭hat is where much of the disaffection and much of the public concern stems from,鈥� he said, referring to the Secretary General, Security Council and General Assembly. 鈥淚t鈥檚 obvious that we grind down in a kind of abattoir of inflexibility when dealing with tremendous human concerns.鈥�
More than 600 people turned out to the McInnes Room in the Student Union Building for Lewis鈥檚 talk, an annual event established by the and Dal鈥檚 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences as a way to explore the broad themes of tolerance, multiculturalism and diversity.
Lewis touched on a wide range of critical issues on which the UN has failed to show leadership in recent years, including climate change, mass migration, natural disasters and humanitarian crises in countries such as Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Venezuala and Myanmar.
Lewis, who served for years as Canada鈥檚 ambassador to the UN and in various senior roles in the organization, painted a picture of a global body desperately in need of strong moral leadership.
鈥淲e need leaders who are not afraid to take on issues that are disputatious and where there will be disagreement, but where principle will ultimately prevail because they gather around them a sonorous voice of agreement. It is so desperately required,鈥� he said.
He said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has spoken out on some of the critical issues but doesn鈥檛 seem to have the 鈥済ravitas鈥� or influence to 鈥渂ring other countries into the fold.鈥�
Further complicating Canada鈥檚 ability to provide independent leadership at the UN is the country鈥檚 current campaign to secure a seat on the Security Council in the 2020 elections, said Lewis.
鈥淓verything we do is premised on whether or not our positions will enhance our opportunity to be elected to the Security Council,鈥� he said, calling it an 鈥渙bsession.鈥�
The "other" United Nations
Lewis tempered his pessimism slightly when he spoke about the work of the 鈥渨hole other half of the United Nations鈥� that people sometimes forget about 鈥斕齨amely funds, programs and agencies such as the United Nations Development Program, the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), where Lewis spent four years as deputy executive director in the mid-to-late 1990s.
鈥淚 have to say these funds and programs do magnificent work and they uphold the conventions [such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, for instance] which countries so often ignore,鈥� said Lewis, who also spent five years as the Secretary-General鈥檚 Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
鈥淎nd if and when you鈥檙e traveling on the ground through developing countries as I did constantly when I had been given the privilege of working on HIV for the UN, that鈥檚 all they talk about,鈥� he added. 鈥淭hey are not interested in what goes on at the Security Council, even though that may imperil the world. What they are interested in is what the agencies are doing on the ground to help their people and to work in concert with community-based organizations in those countries.鈥�
Lewis also spoke of efforts to reform the United Nations to make it more functional and less subject to the political calculus underpinning international affairs, but said meaningful reform is tough to achieve given the veto power of the Security Council鈥檚 five permanent members (China, Russia, the U.S., the UK and France). 听
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A question-and-answer period following Lewis鈥檚 talk drew audience questions on everything from if the UN should be replaced (it鈥檚 鈥渨orth saving鈥�) to how to measure success when even good leaders can鈥檛 achieve much change there (鈥測ou judge success by occasional progress鈥�).
In the end, he said during his talk, it鈥檚 all about leadership.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what鈥檚 needed,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople who, in a principled and compassionate way, want to change the world and save the United Nations in the process.鈥�
Lewis is the board chair of the , a non-governmental group that assists AIDS- and HIV-related projects in Africa. He is also co-founder and co-director of AIDS-Free World in the United States.
